


Told My Friends Not To Worry

by lightningwaltz



Category: Hatoful Kareshi | Hatoful Boyfriend
Genre: Gen, Reincarnation, friendship fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-28
Updated: 2012-04-28
Packaged: 2017-11-04 11:45:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/393475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightningwaltz/pseuds/lightningwaltz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hiyoko will always be there for Ryouta</p>
            </blockquote>





	Told My Friends Not To Worry

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt on the kink meme. OP requested fic post-BBL fic about Hiyoko reincarnating into a bird. That's definitely the set-up on the story, but it sort of wound up devolving into Hiyoko + Ryouta friendship fic as well. (I just find them so touching on Ryouta's route.)

When someone poisons you, well, that’s pretty much it, right? Game over, you’re dead and gone, time to give up now. And if that isn’t enough, my corpse was torn to pieces and shoved in boxes. (And doesn’t that sound the kind of medieval torture my ancestors once practiced? Sometimes I wonder about the things Doctor Iwamine must have read in his spare time... If he has any.)

Most people would have called it quits then and there, written off the world as rotten, and can you really blame them?

I should probably say I certainly wanted to move on. I felt the other world calling to me, pulling me away like the other half of magnet. I was terrified by the destruction of my body, and furious at the retaliation against my friends. When I was alive I never really cried, but when I was no longer able to produce tears, there was nothing I wanted more.

It was tempting to flee and start over, but I never gave up. Maybe I’m dead (hah!) stubborn because of my hunter-gatherer instincts. I know there are some birds who would label that as a weakness, and it’s certainly gotten me into trouble before.

However, you need to remember that I’m also a protector. I will fight for my friends until the very end.

That’s why my soul lingered near Ryouta. Shuu miscalculated; I didn’t stick around just because of the preservation of my brain.

Ryouta has got to be the strongest out everybirdie I have ever met. People overlook that aspect of him, not thinking much about how much effort it must take to wake up every day, look after your sick mother, and still go to school with a smile on your face. But I notice and admire it. Ever since he stumbled out of that tree, I’ve tried to be there to pick him up when he falls.

When he’s cured, I feel myself begin fade much like Nageki. I accept it the way I accept sunrise each morning. An inevitability, for good or for bad.

“I don’t want you to leave,” Ryouta tells me, but he’s fighting the tide of a much-delayed death. His torn voice is the only thing making me reconsider.

“Don’t worry about it, Ryouta. I’ll see you soon,” I promise. And I mean it more than anything I’ve ever said.

*

I spent so long as a hovering soul, that I became used to flight.

It’s no wonder I was reborn as a bird.

*  
At first, hints of my previous life are piecemeal. They lazily drift into my consciousness over the years through dreams, granting me no more than I can handle at any given time. There are also the flashbacks I shouldn’t have; recollections of having hands instead of wings, being tethered to the ground instead of taking to the sky, going to a school I’d never seen.

Friends I have never met.

Those are the best and worst dreams.

I chase after these strange memories as if I’m one of those hunter-gatherer humans that share our planet. (I like most of the ones I meet!) Times are peaceful and seeds are plentiful, so there’s no outlet for my stubborn nature. Nothing to do but pursue the truth behind my unusual dreams.

Things start to fall into place when I begin high school and meet an upperclassmen named Ryouta. He’s kind but sometimes he looks so sad.

“Do you still have that job that I told you you should take?” I blurt out one day, before I realize what I’m saying.

I think about apologizing, but something in his eyes lights up. Like he’s suppressing a hopeful smile. “Hiyoko?”

The name strikes a chord in me, even though we’re not even in music class. “I… think so?” But being recognized and names brings everything to focus. “Yeah, I am. I’m sure of it.”

*

Because it doesn’t matter. Whether I’m Hiyoko or not, whether I’m a bird or a human, I keep my promises to Ryouta.


End file.
